England Cricket In The Spotlight

As the England coaching teams regroup and try and refine their game plans to prevent both Ashes series from being beyond recall next weekend, focus at ECB Towers will be elsewhere.

The 2 Richards, Thompson and Gould, ECB Chair and CEO respectively will have had a week to consider the findings of the damning report published by the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket “Holding Up A Mirror to Cricket”. The report is a 317 page, 44 recommendation and 99 sub recommendation evisceration of the way the game is run in England and Wales labelling the sport racist, riddled with sexism and misogmy with a prevalence of elitism and class-based discrimination.

Mmm, not a good look.

The report’s key recommendations focus on

·        Culture

·        EDI

·        Governance and Leadership

·        Complaints and

·        Schools and Pathway

Many of the findings and recommendations, particularly around EDI are very similar to those highlighted into the ECB commissioned report from 1999 called “Big Report into Cricket Racism”. This shows that the speed of progress in the intervening 24 years has been glacial and in many respects the game has regressed in that time.

A number of the recommendations are basic stuff and the fact that the ECB are being told to implement them shows how far behind most of the other UK NGBs they are, who have worked hard alongside UKS and SE to raise standards within their sport.

Thompson and Gould have reacted very quickly in fulfilling the first recommendation of the report by issuing a full public apology for the current situation which they did through the publishing of an open letter from Richard Thompson. This acknowledges the failings within the sport, fully accepts the report’s findings and pledges to address the situation describing the timing seminal.

Richard and Richard are the strongest leadership team that the ECB have ever had and their time at Surrey shows that they “get it” and will drive change. The County has been a strong supporter of girls and women’s cricket, they have invested in the disability form of the game and have undertaken a considerable amount of community based activity in the borough of Lambert, home of the Kia Oval, one of the poorest areas of the capital.

There is therefore a decent chance that this will be the seminal moment in the stewardship of the game that is so desperately needed but it isn’t without some very significant challenges and, as Thompson points out, a number of these changes will take time.

The main challenge from Thompson and Gould is that, although they are the Sports Governing Body, they only directly control a relatively small amount of the cricketing eco system and meaningful change requires comprehensive buy in across the entire game.

They must lead by example and the ECB should become, over time, an exemplar in EDI, Governance and Leadership. They must use all the levers at their disposal - financial, disciplinary, educational, advisory etc. to ensure the rest of the game follows suit.

This is no easy task as the landscape includes the MCC, The 1st Class Counties, The Cricket Foundations, The National Counties, The University and School Game, Recreational Cricket with enormous the network of clubs and associations, the players, coaches, umpires, supporters, members, media and sponsors etc.

Inevitably within the wide expanse of the game, there are “a million different opinions” of what should be done and unfortunately but inevitably there will be resistance to change making the process difficult.

This is by no means an exhaustive list and excludes any non-domestic influences and commitments.

It is going to be a major undertaking of cultural change that will take time, resource and a significant amount of investment.

But if it doesn’t start seriously now, what future for the game?